Professional Development Strategies to Enhance Nurses’ Knowledge and Maintain Safe Practice

Abstract

Maintaining competence is a professional responsibility for nurses. Individual nurses are accountable for their practice, as outlined in the American Nurses Association's Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice. Nurses across clinical settings face the sometimes daunting challenge of staying abreast of regulatory mandates, practice changes, equipment updates, and other workplace expectations. In the complex, evolving perioperative setting, professional development is a priority, and the need for ongoing education is critical. However, nurses' efforts to engage in their own development can be hampered by a lack of time, limited access to educational resources, or cost concerns. This article provides an overview of nursing professional development and offers some resources to help individual nurses maintain or enhance their knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

The mediating role of thriving: Mindfulness and contextual performance among Turkish nurses

“…Continuing professional development (CPD) is a key component of success in nursing (Pool, Poell, Berings, & Ten Cate, ; Price & Reichert, ). Nurses have to keep up with the rapid advances in technology and knowledge to provide better patient care and to enhance their quality of work (Bindon, ; Kutzin & Janicke, ; Pool et al, ). CPD also provides nurses with job satisfaction and helps them cope with stress (Coventry, Maslin‐Prothero, & Smith, ; Hariyati & Safril, ).…”

Perioperative nurses’ perceptions of cross-training: A qualitative descriptive study

“…Kuthan et al 14 described the benefits of a patient-centred care model where nurses accompanied patients on their surgical journey and provided specialty care from perioperative admission to discharge. Similarly, Bindon 34 observed nurses who continued to develop their ongoing competence were more able to provide safe patient-centred care, therefore making a greater contribution to perioperative practice and excellence in nursing care.…”

One-day workshops, a platform for continuous professional development of nursing staff in a neonatal intensive care unit

“…Platforms available include but are not limited to social media (O'Connor et al, 2017), instant messaging (Pimmer et al, 2018) or conferences (Pool et al, 2015). Bindon (2017) also identified online modules, courses and websites, workshops, journal clubs, mentorship and professional networking as possible platforms for continuing professional development.…”